The arrest of 33-year-old Ashwin Pinto took place at his Cuffe Parade residence in South Mumbai from where he was brought to court, which sent him on detention under judicial custody, a senior official of CCIC said.

Pinot, who works for a Website that produces material related to the television industry of India, had allegedly dispatched the e-mail from a South Mumbai cyber café to a business journalist. In the e-mail, Pinot impersonated Ambani and claimed certain fictitious things. The journalist wasted no time and informed Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) officials who contacted the Cyber Crime Cell to file a complaint.

Pinot created a counterfeit e-mail ID, mukeshambani@yahoo.co.in, in Mukesh Ambani's name and delivered a message from it to the senior journalist, who passed it to Mr. Ambani on November 1, 2007.

Ambani, an internationally ranking wealthy person, reached the Cyber Crime Cell and filed a complaint in the end week of October 2007. He had been receiving a number of embarrassing e-mails from Pinto whom Ambani had never known.

Investigators who were handling the case traced the source of the e-mail and found the Internet Protocol address of the PC from where the e-mail was sent. This helped them to locate the computer, which they found in a cyber café in Colaba of Mumbai. When they questioned the café owner, Pinot's name surfaced.

Investigators also found that Pinot had used a pen drive to transfer the typed e-mail from his own computer. He had then taken the pen drive to the cyber café from where he sent the e-mail. Officials have seized Pinto's home hard disk for examination.

A high-ranking police officer said that Pinot may not have had any malicious motive behind sending the fake e-mail; perhaps it was all for some fun.

Pinto faces charges under the Information Technology Act 2000 and different sections of the Indian Penal Code. After his arrest, court granted him bail of Rs.10,000.